This yearI am already thinking about making the best possible peysekh survival guide for 2011 and I really have to start documenting the matzo recipes now, and not eleven months from now, when I will really not want to be filling up on matzo all day.

These salty, crunchy matzo chips were essential in tiding us over those afternoon-teatime cravings for something just like this.

Break up the matzos into chip-size pieces. Place the matzo chips in a strainer or colander and wet them briefly under cold, running water(you do not want to be soaking them as you would for matzo braa or a kugl, just getting the surface a little wet so the oil will stick). Toss the matzo chips witholive oil so that they are liberally coated, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprikas.Heat the oven to 350 and toast the matzo chips for 20-30 minutes to the desired degree of golden umami.

Your comments crash to the heart of almost all discussions about food practices in traditional communities.

While one's East European ancestors may not have used olive oil or been familiar with the concept of umami, they were always interested in innovating and expanding their repertoires.I think the most useful work in this subject is David Sutton's Remembrance of Repasts(Berg 2001), in which he argues that it is more useful to ask whether a particular innovation is sound within a traditional cuisine than whether it is authentic, whatever that means.

Our ancestors, whereever they went, used the ingredients that were available and adapted them to their dietary needs.

I could not bring myself at this point to go out and buy more matzah, but this sounds like a great recipe. Maybe next year. We finished the last of ours as a first course for Shabbat dinner two weeks ago, cooked up in the Tamil style: see my blog entry on this at http://alandivack.blogspot.com/2010/04/matzo-brei-sri-lankan-and-galitzianer.html

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In Mol Araan: A blog about food and words in Yiddish and English including but not limited to cooking, recipes, culinary lexicography, delights and curiosities of the plant world, and cookbooks [Scroll down for English content] email: inmolaraan at gmail dot com